PACTT is pleased to announce that Dr. Josefine Trawal was awarded the InnoTREK/FIT grant for the project miniMarrow as part of the Spring 2021 FIT’s call of projects candidacy.
Stemming from a technology developed at CHUV, EPFL and UNIGE and applied to a cell therapy, miniMarrow allows the subcutaneous injection of a bio-material cultured with bone marrow cells, enabling the patient himself to produce in-vivo blood platelet. Such type of treatment aims at patient suffering from haematological malignancies such as blood cancers, leukaemias and lymphomas. Such pathologies requires currently 4 to 8 monthly platelet transfusions to the patient. miniMarrow contemplates to achieve the same therapeutic effect with only one monthly injection.
Before participating to the InnoTREK/FIT selection process, the miniMarow team was supported by the Ucreate3 program form the UNIL’s Entrepreneurial and Innovation HUB. Josefine and her team were coached by experts so as to develop entrepreneur’s skills, clarify market needs and setup initial approaches for their business model.
This CHF 100’000 grant will allow Dr Josefine Tratwal to develop further her project and to create a start-up. During this yearly grant, Josefine will be hosted in Professor Olaia Naveiras’ regenerative haematopoiesis research laboratory.
PACTT’s team is proud to support this ambitious project, precursor of a new therapeutic approach with multiple social benefits.